Claudette Colvin : biography. They forced her into the back of a squad car, one officer jumping in after her. She relied on the city's buses to get to and from school because her family did not own a car. It was an exchange later credited with changing the racial landscape of America. Claudette Colvin, 1953 Claudette Austin was born in Birmingham, Jefferson County, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin on September 5, 1939.Her father abandoned the family, which included a sister, when she was a small child, and the two girls went to live in Pine Level, Montgomery County, with an aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin.Both children took the Colvin name as their last name . That's what they usually did.". [30] Claudette began a job in 1969 as a nurse's aide in a nursing home in Manhattan. 83 Year Old #3. The young Ms. Colvin was portrayed by actress Mariah Iman Wilson. "Always studying and using long words.". He was drug-addicted and alcoholic and passed away of a cardiac attack in Colvin's apartment. In this small, elevated patch of town, black people sit out on wooden porches and watch an impoverished world go by. A poor, single, pregnant, black, teenage mother who had both taken on the white establishment and fallen foul of the black one. They would have come and seen my parents and found me someone to marry. The police arrived and convinced a black man sitting behind the two women to move so that Mrs. Hamilton could move back, but Colvin still refused to move. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." The majority of customers on the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack at age 37. Born on September 5 #12. "There was no assault", Price said. She sat in the colored section about two seats away from an emergency exit, in a Capitol Heights bus. Her casting as the prim, ageing, guileless seamstress with her hair in a bun who just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time denied her track record of militancy and feminism. The United States District Court ruled the state of Alabama and Montgomery's bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. While Parks has been heralded as a civil rights heroine, Colvin's story has received little notice. Aster is known as a talisman of love and an enduring symbol of elegance. [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" Nine months before Parks's arrest, a 15-year-old girl, Claudette Colvin, was thrown off a bus in the same town and in almost identical circumstances. Members of the community acted as lookouts, while Colvin's father sat up all night with a shotgun, in case the Ku Klux Klan turned up. Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, as Browder v. Gayle, to challenge bus segregation in the city. And, from there, the short distance to sanctity: they called her "Saint Rosa", "an angel walking", "a heaven-sent messenger". Ward and Paul Headley. [16] On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school. "I became very active in her youth group and we use to meet every Sunday afternoon at the Luther church," she says. Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) [1] [2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. The three other girls got up; Colvin stayed put. "So did the teachers, too. In the south, male ministers made up the overwhelming majority of leaders. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. The decision in the 1956 case, which had been filed by Fred Gray and Charles D. Langford on behalf of the aforementioned African American women, ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. The driver caught a glimpse of them through his mirror. [4] Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. "Mrs Parks was a married woman," said ED Nixon. [2] Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. She concentrated her mind on things she had been learning at school. "[20], Browder v. Gayle made its way through the courts. ", Not so Colvin. Colvin gave birth to Raymond, a son. She deserves our attention, our gratitude and a warm, bright spotlight all her own. Clubs called special meetings and discussed the event with some degree of alarm. CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST, 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL. [46], Young adult book Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose, was published in 2009 and won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Now 76 and retired, Colvin deserves her place in history. 45.148.121.138 But Colvin was not the only casualty of this distortion. The driver, James Blake, turned around and ordered the black passengers to go to the back of the bus, so that the whites could take their places. Four years later, they executed him. I felt the hand of Harriet Tubman pushing down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth pushing down on the other. The woman alleged rape; Reeves insisted it was consensual. "I would sit in the back and no one would even know I was there. "I had almost a life history of being rebellious against being mistreated against my colour," she said. [9] When they took Claudette in, the Colvins lived in Pine Level, a small country town in Montgomery County, the same town where Rosa Parks grew up. "You may do that," said Parks, who is now 87 and lives in Detroit. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. "She was an A student, quiet, well-mannered, neat, clean, intelligent, pretty, and deeply religious," writes Jo Ann Robinson in her authoritative book, The Montgomery Bus Boycott And The Women Who Started It. At the time, Parks was a seamstress in a local department store but was also a secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). She was convicted on all charges, appealed and lost again. And that person, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks. She resisted bus segregation nine months before Rosa Parks, . [32], In 2005, Colvin told the Montgomery Advertiser that she would not have changed her decision to remain seated on the bus: "I feel very, very proud of what I did," she said. It is the historian who has decided for his own reasons that Caesar's crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all.". Sikora telephoned a startled Colvin and wrote an article about her. "She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny," said King, in a quote now displayed in the civil rights museum in Atlanta. One incident in particular preoccupied her at the time - the plight of her schoolmate, Jeremiah Reeves. She fell out of history altogether. Ms. Colvin in New York on Feb. 5, 2009. The boycott was very effective but the city still resisted complying with protesters' demands - an end to the policy preventing the hiring of black bus drivers and the introduction of first-come first-seated rule. Colvin went to her job instead. "She was a bookworm," says Gloria Hardin, who went to school with Colvin and who still lives in King Hill. Officers were called to the scene and Colvin was forcefully taken off of the bus and . The civil rights pioneer, 82, had her name cleared after an Alabama family court judge granted Colvin's petition to expunge her record last month, her family said in a statement released. Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. She was 15. "I recited Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee, the characters in Midsummer Night's Dream, the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm." "When I told my mother I was pregnant, I thought she was going to have a heart attack. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. ", A personal tragedy for her was seen as a political liability by the town's civil rights leaders. I didn't want to discuss it with them," she says. It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire. At 82, her arrest is expunged", "Claudette Colvin's juvenile record has been expunged, 66 years after she was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a White person", "John McCutcheon sings Rita Dove's 'Claudette Colvin', Drunk History' Montgomery, AL (TV Episode 2014), "The Newsroom - Will McAvoy On Historical Hypotheticals", "Report: Biopic about civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin in the works", The Other Rosa Parks (Colvin interview with, Vanessa de la Torre, "In The Shadow of Rosa Parks: 'Unsung Hero' of Civil Rights Movement Speaks Out", "An asterisk, not a star, of black history", Let us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal he is - Rosa Parks' bus stand and the long history of bus resistance, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Claudette_Colvin&oldid=1142354716. This much we know. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 15, for refusing to give up her seat on a crowded, segregated bus to a white woman. [28] Colvin stated she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. The urban bustle surrounding her could not seem further away from King Hill. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. Tour: Black America and the burden of the perfect victim. Colvin is not exactly bitter. "It bothered some that there was an unruly, tomboy quality to Colvin, including a propensity for curse words and immature outbursts," writes Douglas Brinkly, who recently completed a biography of Parks. He was so light-skinned (like his father) that people frequently said she had a baby by a white man. "I respect my elders, but I don't respect what they did to Colvin," she says. But it is also a rare and excellent one that gives her more than a passing, dismissive mention. Daryl Bailey, the District Attorney for the county, supported her motion, stating: "Her actions back in March of 1955 were conscientious, not criminal; inspired, not illegal; they should have led to praise and not prosecution". People often make death hoaxes of well-known personalities to get public attention and views. A second son, Randy, born in 1960, gave her four grandchildren, who are all deeply proud of their grandmothers heroism. It is time for President Obama to. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. Similarly, Rosa Parks left Montgomery for Detroit in 1957. She wants . 1939- Claudette was born in Birmingham 1951- 22nd Amendment was put into place, limiting the presidential term of office . Charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the bus segregation laws and assaulting the officers who had apprehended her, she was released later that night. [20] In a later interview, she said: "We couldn't try on clothes. [16] Referring to the segregation on the bus and the white woman: "She couldn't sit in the same row as us because that would mean we were as good as her". In this respect, the civil rights movement in Montgomery moved fast. This led to a few articles and profiles by others in subsequent years. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! Today their boycott, modelled on the one in Montgomery, is largely forgotten - but it was a milestone in achieving equality. The once-quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the othersaying, 'Sit down girl!' Two policemen boarded the bus and asked Colvin why she wouldn't give up her seat. I think that history only has room enough for certainyou know, how many icons can you choose? Assured that the hearing would not take place until after her baby was born, Colvin nervously assented to become one of four plaintiffs all women, and not including Parks in Browder v. Gayle. She retired in 2004. While her role in the fight to end segregation in Montgomery may not be widely recognized, Colvin helped advance civil rights efforts in the city. After her refusal to give up her seat, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating the city's segregation laws. Colvin says that after Supreme Court made its decision, things slowly began to change. The record of her arrest and adjudication of delinquency was expunged by the district court in 2021, with the support of the district attorney for the county in which the charges were brought more than 66 years before. They never came and discussed it with my parents. She and her son Raymond moved in with Velma while Colvin looked for work. Another cracked a joke about her bra size. The court, however, ruled against her and put her on probation. The discussions in the black community began to focus on black enterprise rather than integration, although national civil rights legislation did not pass until 1964 and 1965. Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."[6][8]. The driver wanted all of them to move to the back and stand so that the white passenger could sit. [2][13] Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. 1956- Colvin was one of four Black women who served as plaintiffs in a federal court suit 1956- Had her child, his name was Raymond 1957- People were bombing black churches 1957- Congress approved the Civil Rights Act of 1957 Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her . "She had been yelling, 'It's my constitutional right!'. Although some of the details might seem familiar, this is not the Rosa Parks story. Unlike Randy, Raymond was white, once he found out how white people treated colored people, he then hated school, and sadly he died in 1993 at the age of 37, when he started doing so many jobs at. [39], In 2019, a statue of Rosa Parks was unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, and four granite markers were also unveiled near the statue on the same day to honor four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, including Colvin[40][41][42], In 2021 Colvin applied to the family court in Montgomery County, Alabama to have her juvenile record expunged. [16][19], When Colvin refused to get up, she was thinking about a school paper she had written that day about the local customs that prohibited blacks from using the dressing rooms in order to try on clothes in department stores. For months, Montgomerys NAACP chapter had been looking for a court case to test the constitutionality of the bus laws. [27], In New York, Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. Some have tried to change that. Though he didn't say it, nobody was going to say that about the then heavily pregnant Colvin. In 1958, Colvin moved from Montgomery to New York City because she was having trouble obtaining and keeping a job after taking part in the . In a United States district court, she testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case. [17][18][6] This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. Everybody knew. The full enormity of what she had done was only just beginning to dawn on her. "I thought he would stop and shout and then drive on. ", Rosa Parks is a heroine to the US civil rights movement. Colvin has said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all. As more white passengers got on, the driver asked black people to give up their seats. Her voice is soft and high, almost shrill. American civil rights pioneer and former nurse's aide Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939. image credit; BBC. But attorney Gray found it all but impossible to find riders who would potentially risk their lives by attaching their names as plaintiffs. Some people questioned if the father was a white male. "Ms Parks was quiet and very gentle and very soft-spoken, but she would always say we should fight for our freedom.". "So I went and I testified about the system and I was saying that the system treated us unfairly and I used some of the language that they used when we got taken off the bus.". "For nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. Gary Younge investigates, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. After her arrest and release to the custody of her pastor and great-aunt, the bright, opinionated Colvin insisted to everyone within earshot that she wanted to contest the charges. Your IP: The NMAAHC has a section dedicated to Rosa Parks, which Colvin does not want taken away, but her family's goal is to get the historical record right, and for officials to include Colvin's part of history. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press). In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy. [28], The Montgomery bus boycott was able to unify the people of Montgomery, regardless of educational background or class. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a1897c67fea0e3a Either way, he had violated the South's deeply ingrained taboo on interracial sex - Alabama only voted to legalise interracial marriage last month (the state held a referendum at the same time as the ballot for the US presidency), and then only by a 60-40 majority. "Move y'all, I want those two seats," he yelled. Claudette Colvin gave birth to a son named Raymond in the same year 1955. Colvin has retired from her job and has been living her life. ", But even as she inspired awe throughout the country, elders within Montgomery's black community began to doubt her suitability as a standard-bearer of the movement. Why has Claudette Colvin been denied her place in history? This movement took place in the United States. He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin, and in 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. "He wanted me to give up my seat for a white person and I would have done it for an elderly person but this was a young white woman. Claudette Colvin became a teenage mother in 1956 when she gave birth to a boy named Raymond. "The NAACP had come back to me and my mother said: 'Claudette, they must really need you, because they rejected you because you had a child out of wedlock,'" Colvin says. In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did exactly the same thing. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. She made history at the young age of 15 by refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white woman. 2023 BBC. Letters of support came from as far afield as Oregon and California. Unable to find work in Montgomery, Colvin moved to New York in 1958, while her son Raymond remained behind with family. [39] Later, Rev. The organisation didn't want a teenager in the role, she says. She works the night shift and sleeps "when the sleep falls on her" during the day. The bus froze. Civil Rights Leader #7. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". King Hill, Montgomery, is the sepia South. The policeman arrived, displaying two of the characteristics for which white Southern men had become renowned: gentility and racism. If the bus became so crowded that all the "white seats" in the front of the bus were filled until white people were standing, any African Americans were supposed to get up from nearby seats to make room for whites, move further to the back, and stand in the aisle if there were no free seats in that section. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. Parks.. Claudette Colvin (born September 5, 1939) is a retired American nurse aide who was a pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement. He was executed for his alleged crimes. [16], Through the trial Colvin was represented by Fred Gray, a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions. Colvin could not attend the proclamation due to health concerns. Before the Rosa Parks incident took place, Claudette Colvin was arrested for challenging the bus segregation system. Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. I was afraid they might rape me. The story of Colvins courage might have been forgotten forever had not Frank Sikora, a Birmingham newspaper reporter assigned in 1975 to write a retrospective of the bus boycott, remembered that there had been a girl arrested before Parks. She sat down in the front of the bus and refused to move on her own will when asked. [50], In 2022, a biopic of Colvin titled Spark written by Niceole R. Levy and directed by Anthony Mackie was announced. . She appreciated, but never embraced, King's strategy of nonviolent resistance, remains a keen supporter of Malcolm X and was constantly frustrated by sexism in the movement.
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